The Sony MDR-1000X are an above average over-ear headphones for most use cases with excellent noise cancellation, making them a good choice for commuting and travel. They are comfortable and decently well built with plenty of features. We hope you enjoyed this Sony MDR-1000X review blog. Sony has been pushing High-Resolution Audio further than almost any other manufacturer and implementing it in an ever-dense lineup of high-quality headphones for listeners around the world. The MDR-1000x Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones are a perfect fit for this business plan. They’re the company’s most technologically advanced headphones to date and the latest in a long line of offerings to take direct aim at Bose studio headphones
Combining great sound and comfort with top-notch noise cancellation, the MDR-1000x are a doozy and worth considering, even at a hefty $400. You can click on the screen and read about the different features. and you can play a limited selection of tracks. The tracks seem almost randomly selected. The Sense Engine noise canceling optimizer, ambient sound modes, and touch controls are all disabled on the demo unit for some reason.
Design
These are best-looking headphones, with minimal branding and a streamlined silhouette. From afar they look a bit plain, but up close you can see that Sony has made a solid nod to luxury. The construction is mostly plastic, but it feels hard rather than tacky. There’s polished metal on the headband, and the ear cups and ear pads are wrapped in a very believable faux leather that feels great to the touch. Not only do they look great, these headphones feel great. The polyurethane foam in the cushions is very soft and conforms to the shape of your head. The headband uses just the right price of pressure to stay in place, gripping instead of pinching.
They’re also light enough to sit on your head for hours. we put them on a flight and managed to fall asleep. Build quality is strong; there are no creaks and the headband expands with decisive clicks. Compared to the basic plastic construction of the Bose QC35, the Sony MDR-1000X looks and feels much more luxurious. Take care of them, there’s a hard case included, and they should last you a while.
Comfort
The Sony MDR-1000x are comfortable headphones, but they lack padding. They do not put much pressure on the ears and are also relatively light for their size and build quality. The padding on the ear cups and headband is comfortable, making it comfortable on your head and ears. The clamping force is reasonable and the earphones stay well on the head. The headband is made of steel and makes this satisfying “click” sound while making adjustments.
The headphones are foldable like the QC35 but the folding mechanism is more rigid. Overall, we’ll say that Bose still beats the MDR-1000x in this segment due to comfort level. Don’t get me wrong, the MDR-1000x is easily one of the few most comfortable headphones we’ve ever worn. But the QC35 has exceptionally soft and comfortable ear pads. we can easily carry the Bose for much longer.
Connectivity
Being a Sony product, these are especially suitable for Sony enthusiasts. If you already have a hi-res music player or something that can play LDAC files, you’ll get higher quality out of these because they support both. Everyone else will have to settle for Bluetooth with aptX codec, which seems fine to me. Connection strength is solid, and while it can’t reach 100 meters like some other headsets we’ve reviewed recently, we were able to get to about 50 or 60 meters before skipping became an issue. So it’s not the best range in its class, but it’s better than average. We were even able to send the mail forward without skipping in the music.
The only buttons on the earphones are on the bottom of the left ear cup. There is an on/off button, a button to activate active noise cancellation and a button that lets you switch between ambient sounds. This is probably the most interesting. You can choose between “normal” and “speech.” Normal mode uses the microphones to pass most sounds through the headphones along with your music, while voice mode lets only voices through.
Features
The key to Sony’s noise-canceling claim is some serious technology, namely the Sense Engine and the Personal NC Optimizer, the latter being a self-calibrating piece of software similar to that found in home headphone amplifiers. Sony’s emit test tones to measure your head/ear shape and headphone position. The numbers are then crunched with the goal of offering the best possible noise cancellation.
A voice from the headphones tells you when the process is complete and when noise cancellation is activated. It also sounds when you turn on the headphones, during Bluetooth pairing, and at various times to tell you the level of the built-in battery. Another key feature that helps set these Sony apart is the quick focus mode. Carrying on a conversation while wearing a pair of ear covers usually involves some kind of awkward positioning of an earpiece or the complete removal of your cans.
The 1000X saves you from all these hassles. Put your hand on the right shell of the earphones while listening to music, and it will cut out immediately. Now you can hear what the other person is saying in crystal clear quality. Remove your hand and the music will return to its place. It’s a smart and engaging way to interact with your headset.
Noise Cancellation
Until now, Bose has been the undisputed king of noise cancellation. We have used the Sony MDR-1000X for almost two weeks now, and we find that they block out the outside world just as well. Like all ANC headphones, the Sony MDR-1000X are great at handling constant noise at low frequencies, but they are also great at reducing everything else a bit. We tested them on an airplane and they reduced the roar of the engines to a howl.
We got even better results on my daily train ride. The general bustle of the London streets was also no match. we have walked right next to roadworks and moving buses and our music was never interrupted. These headphones only had issues with wind noise, which seems to confuse the microphones. To be fair, we haven’t found a single pair of ANC headphones immune to this. There’s none of the hissing and whining that often plagues wireless and noise-cancelling headphones.
Like the Bose QC35, Sony’s ANC technology is so effective that it feels like the headphones are actively pressing silence on your head. You will feel a change in pressure, which feels a bit strange at first, but you’ll get used to it and the feeling will go away when you play music.
Audio Performance
There’s a lot to unpack here, but if you just walk away with two takeaways, they should be that the MDR-1000X has excellent noise-canceling cutoffs, and music playback, especially when using another hi-res audio device, is exceptional. Noise cancellation is arguably the main reason headphones cost so much, and one of the reasons they’re so good. What separates Sony’s noise cancellation technology from Bose’s is that Sony identifies different types of audio signals and works specifically to counteract them.
During a demo with a Sony engineer, we were given three everyday scenarios where you’d need noise-canceling technology, and then asked what we thought. The first and most obvious scenario was an airplane. Then, while we were listening to Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, the engineer started a recording of an airplane engine from a speaker above our heads.
We didn’t completely ignore the roar, even with noise cancellation on we immediately noticed something had changed, but compared to the engine sound with the headphones off it was almost completely reduced. There aren’t many headphones that can almost completely block out a separate speaker emitting the dull roar of an airplane engine, but Sony’s MDR-1000X really did it.
Battery Life
We were quite impressed with the MDR-1000X’s battery life. Sony claims you can expect the MDR-1000X to run for around 20 hours with active noise cancellation and Bluetooth turned on, or around 22 hours without noise cancellation. We found that even that estimate was a bit conservative:
We used mine for two days straight listening to music for about eight or nine hours each day and the battery dropped below the 50% mark. That said, all internal batteries wear out over time, and Sony doesn’t offer battery replacements on the MDR-1000X. That means three or four years later, when the MDR-1000X no longer has the charge it once did, your only option is to retire them.
Final Words
We hope you understand and enjoy this blog of the Sony MDR-1000X Review. The Sony MDR-1000X headphones kicked off what has become a dynasty of top-tier Sony wireless noise-canceling headphones. There’s now a newer model, the WH-1000XM3, not to mention new offerings from Bose and Sennheiser, but Sony’s original wireless headphones are still a great bet, especially if you can find a good deal. We hope you share this blog with family and friends.